Coffee is a Stark's best friend
by Toa Karou
Summary: Why Tony drinks coffee when working AKA Tony needs to sleep more often.


Hey everyone, I've been lurking amongst the Iron Man and Avengers fandoms for a while now, and I have to say the fics I've seen here are pretty awesome. Here's hoping mine is at least entertaining enough =)

_**Disclaimer: If I owned Iron Man, I won't have to take national exams this year.**_

* * *

Another late night spent in the workshop repairing the suit. Or was it morning?

"Jarvis, what time is it?"

"5:13am, sir. I suggest you get some sleep before the meeting with the R&D department at 8am."

Yeah, morning. It's too late-early to sleep anyway, so he continued adjusting the repulsor on his armour's left boot, before proceeding to test out its thrust. He left the right boot unchanged as a comparison of their performances.

On hindsight, perhaps he should have tweaked the other boot as well.

As he watched through the test footage, he lightly massaged the bruise that was slowly making its appearance on his right shoulder, where he had crashed into the metal rack nearby. The improved repulsor was definitely showing promise, since it had managed to propel him that fast in that direction. Maybe he should start working on a new suit with this new tech. Mark… What number is it up to now?

Seven suits stood motionless in the Hall of Suits, each in varying degrees of repair. Mark 7 is missing its legs, for obvious reasons.

Mark 8 then.

As he studied the holographic blueprints of the Mark 7, mind lost to the technobabble that raced through his brain, he realized even more improvements could be made to it. Increased power efficiency, lighter weight, higher thrust capacity… He haphazardly threw the boot he had been holding over his shoulder, not caring where it landed.

"Jarvis, new project file, title 'Mark 8'. Don't import the schematics for Mark 7, I'm starting on a clean slate."

He grabbed a holopen (pending patent) and began scribbling notes into the new document, intent on redesigning the entire suit to be more efficient in every aspect.

The sound of ACDC was cut off abruptly. He was annoyed, but he won't give the culprit the pleasure of seeing him frown. His face remained impassive as he continued his calculations, trying to determine the maximum speed he could possibly achieve with the current metal frame. Wait, it didn't have to be made of metal, right? Maybe CFRP can replace some of the parts and lighte-

"Good morning, Mr Stark. It's rare to see you up this early." The familiar voice of his PA sounded from behind him.

"Right, early. Give me some space here, I'm on the verge of discovery." He tried to recatch his previous train of thought, having jumped off it briefly when Pepper entered. Snapping his fingers, Thunderstruck resumed, causing some metallic surfaces to vibrate in resonance with the boosted bass. Before it could reached the first chorus however, Pepper had muted it again. "Traitor," He mumbled to Jarvis perhaps. He decided to entertain Pepper anyway, just so he could get back to working in peace.

"So, what's today's agenda?" He grabbed a mug, noticed it was devoid of coffee and made a face at the coffee stain left on the table, as if the stain were mocking him.

"You have a meeting with R&D in about 30 minutes, they're hoping you'll have something to present to them. You also have a lu-"

"R&D? I'll have something prepared. Just give me some time to get it prepared. Go on."

Pepper glared at Tony, as if trying to say 'I was trying to continue before you cut me off again'.

"Anyway, you have a lunch appointment with a representative with Fujikawa Industries regarding the collaboration project which you have yet to draft the proposal for."

"I'll come up with something by then. Probably."

Tony dug around the pile of slightly twisted metal at the back of the workshop, searching for the discarded Mark 7 boot. Once he did, he held it up in triumph, going 'Ah-ha!' before snatching a tool box from a worktable and proceeding to take it apart. A somewhat apologetic look on his face, he exposed the mechanical parts, attempting to remove the improved repulsor. When that failed, he simply yanked it out with brute force, causing the circuitry to spark. He did a quick visual inspection of the cylindrical component, deeming it functional and wrapping it in a piece of rag.

"Come on, let's go. Technological advances of tomorrow don't make themselves, you know." He marched up the stairs to get dressed. He had no objections with leaving home in just a wifebeater (with a circular hole cut in it) and his pants, but Pepper would probably chew his head off for doing that.

A quick command for Jarvis to save his work and lockdown the house later, he was out of the door in a simple dress shirt and dress pants. Nothing too fancy, of course. R&D meetings, in his experience, often turned into sessions where he and the scientists experimented with some of their cutting-edge patented Stark Tech. Explosions were uncommon, but not unexpected.

In the car, Happy Hogan's experienced driving provided a smooth journey from his house to the Stark Industries Building at the other side of the city. Tony could feel the lost hours of sleep finally catching up with him, as the car seemed to teleport itself through the streets. One second they were passing by Burger King, the next they were at the main foyer of his company building. Lacking any sort of substance to keep himself awake, he was reluctant to leave the comfort of the cushioned interior of the Rolls Royce.

"Tony, we have to go! The meeting is scheduled to start in 5 minutes!"

"5 more minutes then…" He muttered, already drifting back to sleep, splayed out ungracefully on the car seat.

Pepper sighed. "I thought you always looked forward to R&D meetings. What's so different about this one?"

"I'm usually less er, zombie-like." He didn't give much resistance when Happy grabbed his arm and literally dragged him out of the car onto the pavement. A few employees paused what they had been doing and watched the scene unfolding in the carpark.

"Mr Stark! Please stop acting like a child and go to the meeting!"

Under the morning sunlight, his bloodshot eyes and eye bags were more visible. Tony groaned and struggled to stand upright.

"You didn't sleep last night, did you?"

Tony glanced at Pepper's unimpressed expression and tried to grin, still trying to shake the fog out of his mind. "How could you tell?"

Pepper rolled her eyes, trotting off into the main building in her crazy-high heels. Those must be at least 4 inches, how does she even balance on those...

He felt a hand pat his back, then pushing him in the direction of the main lobby. "You should go, boss." Happy advised, before he stepped back into the car to park it.

Tony grumbled a little, staggering a little unsteadily into the elevator. To prevent himself from falling asleep during the ascend, he whipped out his phone and imported the schematics for Mark 8, continuing to tweak the design a little here and there. A ping notified him of a new message from Pepper.

_'I've prepared a jug of coffee for you in your office, your schedule should be clear after your lunch appointment. Get some rest, Tony.'_

He smiled, suddenly looking forward to the coming meetings. More than anything, he just wanted to get through the day and sleep.

Right on cue, he had arrived at the R&D department. Stifling a yawn, he walked up to his top engineers, who all nodded upon his arrival. The head of department (whose name escaped him) stood up.

"Shall we begin the meeting?"

Tony seated himself into the nearest unoccupied seat, extracted a lump of grease-stained cloth from his pocket and dropped his head onto the table. The engineers present all stared at him, while the head of department slowly unwrapped the piece of cloth, revealing a repulsor unit. 2 engineers nearest to Tony swore they heard him say "Knock yourselves out" right before he began to snore.


End file.
